1. No voting system based on 'TRADE SECRET' code, like ours is now,

and largely (80%) controlled by one, private, far rightwing-connected corporation--ES&S, which bought out Diebold--can be trusted to indicate "trends." We really have no idea if there is a "surge" of far rightwing radicalism in the Republican Party. Nor can we tell it from the "news" which is highly manipulated to serve corporate interests (loudmouth fascists given a "big trumpet" way out of proportion to their numbers?)--but the 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting is the far more dangerous item. We can overcome corporate propaganda. We can't overcome 'TRADE SECRET' code. (That's what it's FOR--so that we can't overcome it.)

We are reduced to guessing. My guess is that this far rightwing electoral successes are mostly phony. We are not seeing real--verifiable, transparent--voting results. My personal view is that the far rightwing is as tiny a minority as it has ever been. I wish that we could know for sure, but my study of the voting system tells me that we simply can't. We can't know. And basing political analysis on such results--without mentioning WHO is counting the votes and HOW they are counting them (out of public view, with, in half the states in the country, no verification even possible) invalidates the analysis.